Fan Art

Here is some 'fan art' from my daughter Lauren.  She wanted to clean up one of the pages in the book and this was her drawing.  Very nice job!

Interview with Animation Insider.com

An interview that I did recently with the website Animation Insider.com just came out today.  Click on the image below to check it out!  I talked about my work in the animation industry as well as The Saga of Captain Cheeseball.  Enjoy!

Recently Uploaded to AuthorsDen.com

The Saga of Captain Cheeseball is now available through the website AuthorsDen.com.  This website is a collection of authors looking to connect with readers.  The website boasts over 1.4 million visitors per month.  Check it out!  

AuthorsDen is focused on re-creating the historical face-to-face author and reader relationship where authors create, share, interact with each other and sell direct to their readers, but this time rather than taking place in a town square or temple it takes place online and throughout the world.

Color Sketch of Captain Cheeseball

Last night, I showed my Animation I class how to set up tones and highlights on their characters in Harmony.  So, I drew Captain Cheeseball and used him as our test subject.  More and more, I am thinking that I need to animate him.  I would expect that to be the next step after the books are finished! 

Old Picture

Found this old picture from a high school trip to Universal Studios.  Maybe this is where the idea came from for Captain Cheeseball to be wearing a sombrero.   

Half way through Book IV right now.  Pushed really hard to get through the first three books, but will probably be a little slower on the next three just with other projects going on.  Still shooting for that June 1st release date.  I do think that is attainable.  

Books on Amazon.com

If you search the book on Amazon.com, you will notice there are two books listed.  Originally, I had intended to separate all the books (for a total of eighteen books).  However, after going through the process of uploading the books and determining pricing, I felt like it made a lot more sense to combine three together into one volume.  I was able to set a lower price per book by combining them in this fashion.  I had wanted to delete Book I; however, it seems as if it will always be visible even if I delete it (will be listed as 'out of print').  Considering that I thought this would be confusing to see the first book listed as 'unavailable', I decided to make it available since it was going to be visible whether or not it was active.  Hope this post clarifies things a bit.

Just a sample page from the second book, 'I Wanna Go Home!!!'.  At the Amazon website, you can see more samples from the book.  Just started tonight on books IV, V and VI.  Hoping to have these available in the next month or so.  After the second volume is released, there will probably be a slightly longer gap between volumes two and three.  Very excited about this series, however.  I think I could also see it as an animated piece.  Maybe that is next!   

Volume I of The Captain Cheeseball Saga is Available!

The first three books in the Captain Cheeseball Saga are now available for purchase!  Go to: https://www.createspace.com/3844362.  In about a week, the book will also be available through Amazon.com.

There will will be a total of six books in the series which will chronicle the adventures of Captain Cheeseball, a misfit pirate, who is sent on a quest to find a treasure for the king of Flinginghamdunbergville.  There are details throughout the stories that kids can add and draw directly into the book.  The illustrations throughout the books can also be colored.  I hope to have the next volume completed and available for purchase within the next month or two.  

The story is based on a character my kids made up.  I love telling them silly little stories at bedtime and I decided recently to go ahead and actually make this story into a book series.  I had a lot of fun putting it together and hope you enjoy the stories as much as I did telling them and creating the books!

Enjoy!

Tom Richner

First Book Almost Ready!!!

I am about ready to release the first volume of the Captain Cheeseball saga which will include the first three books of the series.  It will be available on both CreateSpace.com and on Amazon.com.  The following link will eventually take you to the online store to purchase the book: https://www.createspace.com/3844362

I will eventually reorganize this site and place the links to purchase the books on a static page at the top of the blog.  Excited to release the first book!  More information to come soon!